The Girl of the Golden West (1938) - IMDb IMDb There was an error trying to load your rating for this title. Some parts of this page won't work property. Please reload or try later. X Beta I'm Watching This! Keep track of everything you watch; tell your friends. Error The Girl of the Golden West ( 1938 ) Passed | Mary Robbins is a moderately educated, beautiful, young woman who owns the saloon called "The Poker". She is the only woman in the town of Couldee-making her the fancy of all the men there,... See full summary » Director: a list of 300 titles created 09 Feb 2011 a list of 9996 titles created 26 Jun 2012 a list of 6724 titles created 03 Dec 2013 a list of 356 titles created 2 months ago a list of 1689 titles created 1 month ago Title: The Girl of the Golden West (1938) 6.7/10 Want to share IMDb's rating on your own site? Use the HTML below.

You must be a registered user to use the IMDb rating plugin. Opera singer (Marie de Flor) seeks out fugitive brother in the Canadian wilderness. During her trek, she meets a Canadian mountie (Sgt. Bruce) who is also searching for her brother. Romance... See full summary » Director: W.S. Van Dyke In order to avoid a prearranged marriage, a rebellious French princess sheds her identity and escapes to colonial New Orleans, where she finds an unlikely true love. Directors: Robert Z. Leonard, W.S. Van Dyke Stars: Jeanette MacDonald, Nelson Eddy, Frank Morgan An elderly Miss Morrison recounts her life as the once young and beautiful opera singer Marcia Morney-then the toast of Napoleon III's Paris. One evening, she encounters an American voice ... See full summary » Director: Robert Z. Leonard A musical comedy duo in their 6th year on Broadway receive an offer to perform in Hollywood making films. The change of lifestyle is inviting to the Sweethearts as the move will take them ... See full summary » Directors: W.S. Van Dyke, Robert Z.

Leonard Stars: Jeanette MacDonald, Nelson Eddy, Frank Morgan The brother of a notorious outlaw is put in a charge of a stagecoach line way station in dangerous Apache territory. A stagecoach arrives at the station with a valuable box of cargo, and ... See full summary » Directors: Richard Thorpe, Richard Rosson Stars: Lloyd Nolan, Donna Reed, William Lundigan Marianne de Beaumaniour is on her way to New Orleans from Paris to inspect the plantation she inherited from her uncle. On the ship with her are bondsmen, that are to be sold for slavery. ... See full summary » Directors: Robert Z. Leonard, W.S. Van Dyke Stars: Jeanette MacDonald, Nelson Eddy, Mary Boland After an overly aggressive district attorney unknowingly sends an innocent man to the chair, he resigns, turns to drinking, and acquires a criminal clientèle. Director: Lewis Allen In Monte Carlo, Theo Wilkins recruits his young protégé Paul Mason - just released from prison - to help him rob the famous casino of $4 million. The plan is straightforward. On the night ...

See full summary » Director: Henry Hathaway The lives, loves, and battles of fictional characters in the Army's First Ranger Battalion during WWII. Director: William A. Wellman West Point cadet Dick Thorpe falls in love with a girl, who turns out to be a princess from an European kingdom. Director: W.S. Van Dyke Seventy-two hours in the life of Indiana man Bud who inherits money and heads for New York City where his cousin Gibbony introduces him to chorus girl Vida for whom he falls. When a girl is... See full summary » Director: Mervyn LeRoy The ups and downs of Florenz Ziegfeld Jr. , famed producer of extravagant stage revues, are portrayed. Director: Robert Z. Leonard Edit Storyline Mary Robbins is a moderately educated, beautiful, young woman who owns the saloon called "The Poker". She is the only woman in the town of Couldee-making her the fancy of all the men there, especially to Sheriff Jack Rance. On the way to Monterey to sing at a mass officiated by Father Sienna, her stagecoach is held up by the infamous masked bandit, Ramerez.

He too takes a fancy to Mary, and decides to secretly follow her, taking on the identity of an officer named, Lieutenant Johnson. While in Monterey, he dances, sings and courts Mary, who has now fallen in love with him. He then has to make a quick getaway. In the mean-time, Sheriff Jack has set up a trap to catch Ramerez at "The Poker". When Ramerez does arrive he soon discovers that Mary is the owner, and quickly changes to the identity of Lieutenant Johnson. How long can this sherade last? Written by Kelly See All (33) » Taglines: When a western beauty meets a dangerous bandit you'll get a thrill at their hot-blooded romance! See more » Genres: 18 March 1938 (USA) See more » Also Known As: La belle cabaretière See more » Filming Locations: Mono (Western Electric Sound System) Color: David Belasco 's play originally opened in New York on 14 November 1905. See more » Quotes Ramerez : I hope I'll see you again sometime. Yeah? Mary Robbins : I hope I'll see you again sometime too. Dangling on the end of a rope!

– See all my reviews I am writing this review after my second viewing of this movie. After my first viewing, I thought it was trash but with time and a sequestered absence, my opinion has changed and I think it is the second best of the Nelson Eddy/ Jeanette Macdonald behind only the incomparable The Naughty Marietta. For one, Nelson Eddy had learned to act, not well but okay. Jeanette gives her best performance in this movie, and that accent is impeccable. The story is good with a lot of serious dramatic scenes including a scene at a log cabin that lasts close to twenty minutes and does not drag. You could cut the music out of this movie and it would still play like a romantic drama. Most of the singing is solid as Eddy was one of the great voices of the 20th Century. Walter Pidgeon as the spurned lover does his thang and Buddy Ebsen in a supporting role of a hick walks away with the whole picture. The basic plot of the Puccini opera is retained if not mangled and Belasco's play forms the basis for this movie. All in all, suprisingly low key in style but effective at heart.

16 of 16 people found this review helpful. Was this review helpful to you? Yes The Girl of the Golden West – Composer The Girl of the Golden West – Composer The Girl of the Golden West – Composer Share Pin It Giacomo Puccini His full name was Giacomo Antonio Domenico Michele Secondo Maria Puccini . . . it was Italian tradition to include the names of your grandfathers on the birth certificate. Giacomo came from a long line of organists, composers and choir masters in Lucca, a small town in nothern Italy. As a boy, Puccini was described as “lazy, slow, and a poor student,” who enjoyed only bird hunting. His mother, a single parent with seven children, forced him to study music. To help with family finances, Puccini began working at age 11 as a church organist, and later earned money by teaching piano and playing piano in Lucca’s taverns. Puccini saw his first opera at age 18.

Too poor for train fare, he walked almost 20 miles to see Verdi’s AIDA in Pisa, and it changed his life: “I felt that a musical window had opened for me.” Puccini now knew he would not become a church musician like his father, but would turn to opera. He made plans to move to Milan, where the famous opera house, La Scala, was the new center of Italian opera. It took him four years to save enough money to enroll in Milan Conservatory. In Milan, Puccini was poor, but he met the most influential figures in Italian opera. To save money, he shared an apartment with several friends, and in later years, he would recall episodes of dodging bill collectors and playing piano in bars for food. Puccini hated his landlord, who opened the tenants’ mail to collect rent before they could spend it. The students were not allowed to cook in their rooms, but were too poor to eat out, so while his friends cooked, Puccini played piano as loudly as possible to cover the kitchen sounds. In LA BOHÈME, the landlord would become the old buffoon, Benoit, and the young roommates would cheat him out of his rent. . .

something Puccini wanted to do in his youth. Puccini wrote his first opera, LE VILLI, for an opera competition. The judges didn’t like it, but Giulio Ricordi, the most important publisher in Italy, liked it, and saw great promise in Puccini. He paid Puccini a stipend for several years, and stood by him through several attempts to write a successful opera. Ricordi believed that Puccini would become famous. He was right. He made a fortune as the publisher of the world’s most popular operas: TOSCA, LA BOHÈME, and MADAMA BUTTERFLY. Some of Puccini’s most popular operas were composed around the turn of the century included LA BOHÈME in 1896, TOSCA in 1900, and MADAMA BUTTERFLY in 1904, an opera he based on a David Belasco play he’d seen in London. This would not be the first time that Puccini had inspiration from a Belasco play. Then came a long period when he searched for new subjects and yearned to write a different kind of opera.

The result was a commission from America, on an American subject, to be premiered in New York for the Metropolitan Opera. Puccini was again inspired by a David Belasco play and subsequently wrote LA FANCIULLA DEL WEST (THE GIRL OF THE GOLDEN WEST), a tale of gold miners in the California gold rush. FANCIULLA had its premiere in 1910. He wrote four more operas before beginning TURANDOT in 1920. TURANDOT would prove to be an extremely difficult project for Puccini. In fact, he never completed the opera. There were many problems: his librettists were slow, the story line required major rewriting, Puccini wanted it to be bigger than any of his other works and, worst of all, his health was failing. Throughout his life Puccini was never without his beloved cigars, and he was diagnosed with throat cancer in 1923. He had a fatal heart attack after surgery in Brussels, and died on November 29, 1924. Unlike most composers, Puccini died a wealthy man, with an estate valued at $24 million in today’s money.

From 1850 to Puccini’s time, the opera business in Italy was like the Broadway musical scene of today: it was big business. Wealthy investors poured money into star performers and big productions, looking for the next hit show. In Italy, Giuseppe Verdi had been the reigning monarch of opera composers for over fifty years. He had just come out of a long retirement to compose OTELLO (1887) and FALSTAFF (1893), but he was already 80 years old. Italy was looking for Verdi’s successor, and Ricordi put his money on Puccini. And by 1900, all the world knew that Puccini was the heir designate. Puccini wrote 12 operas with three of them, MADAMA BUTTERFLY, LA BOHÈME, and TOSCA easily qualifying as world class, all-time hits, that made the “top ten money makers” list. Add FANCIULLA, TURANDOT and MANON LESCAUT, and you have operas with a large portion of the most beautiful, most frequently sung arias ever written.

Puccini was a master of composing beautiful tunes. Many are used in arias, but most are found woven into the score like threads in fabric. He uses melodies to describe action, individual characters, and emotions. Most of Puccini’s characters have their own themes, called motives, which portray them through music. Puccini searched long and hard for good subjects for his operas. He read scripts and traveled widely to see new plays and theatrical productions. He had an uncanny sense of drama and would not settle on one subject until he knew it would provide powerful, emotional theater. Puccini once described himself as “more heart than mind,” and wrote once, “how can one compose what one does not feel?” With his great melodic gifts, Puccini controlled pacing and mood on stage. He never let things slow down. His favorite tool was contrast: he could instantly turn a scene from humorous to tragic, from lyric to dramatic. Puccini heroines are often tragic figures who are ultimately betrayed by the men in their lives. Floria Tosca is no exception. Her pact with Scarpia and his ultimate betrayal is a classic element in Puccini operas.

Great interpreters of the role of Tosca include Emily Destinn and Maria Callas. Cavaradossi was often performed by legendary tenors like Enrico Caruso, Luciano Pavarotti and Placido Domingo. Scarpia became the signature role for baritone Tito Gobbi. Learn much more about THE GIRL OF THE GOLDEN WEST Puccini's 'The Girl of the Golden West' : NPR Puccini's 'The Girl of the Golden West' Puccini's 'The Girl of the Golden West' From Glimmerglass Opera Embed Embed Email August 17, 200712:01 AM ET In Puccini's Girl of the Golden West, Minnie shows Jack Rance that she's not a woman to be trifled with. They're played by Emily Pulley and Jake Gardner in a production from Glimmerglass Opera. George Mott/Glimmerglass Opera hide caption toggle caption Aaron St. Clair Nicholson ... Sonora Craig Phillips ........................ Jake Glimmerglass Opera Orchestra Stewart Robertson, conductor Giacomo Puccini was never shy when it came to writing operas with exotic settings — or at least settings that seemed exotic to European audiences.

Turandot is set in ancient China. Madame Butterfly is set in Japan, around 1900. The last act of Manon Lescaut takes place on a "vast, arid plain," which somehow turns up on the outskirts of New Orleans. Still, Puccini may have outdone himself with La Fanciulla del West — The Girl of the Golden West. In this one, Puccini's signature "verismo" style comes face to face with America's Wild West. It's as though an Italian potboiler has somehow landed in Deadwood! Surely, this is the only opera to feature phrases like, "Whiskey per tutti!" and "Hello regazzi," and to have one of its crucial moments decided by, "una partita a poker." The story is based on an American drama by David Belasco. Puccini was a big fan of Belasco, who also wrote the play that inspired Madame Butterfly, and there's still a Broadway theater bearing Belasco's name. Puccini's Fanciulla was premiered in 1910 at the Metropolitan Opera in New York City, and it was an all-star affair.

Dick Johnson was sung by the legendary tenor Enrico Caruso. Emmy Destinn was Minnie and Arturo Toscanini conducted. It was a popular and critical success from the beginning, but it does contain some of Puccini's most modern-sounding music and not everyone takes a liking to it the first time around. The character of Minnie was also something new for Puccini: She's a tough cookie, unlike the sad, put-upon, mostly doomed leading ladies of his other operas. In Fanciulla, Minnie takes gun, and fate, firmly in hand. Article continues after sponsorship On World of Opera, host Lisa Simeone brings us a performance from a more pastoral New York locale than the Metropolitan. It's a production by Glimmerglass Opera, about 10 miles north of Cooperstown. The Story of 'The Girl of the Golden West' Email August 17, 200712:01 AM ET Minnie and Dick Johnson, played by Emily Pulley and Roger Honeywell, dance a tentative waltz at Minnie's Polka Saloon.

George Mott/Glimmerglass Opera hide caption toggle caption George Mott/Glimmerglass Opera As Dick Johnson is about to hang, Minnie jumps in to save him, in Glimmerglass Opera's production of The Girl of the Golden West. George Mott/Glimmerglass Opera hide caption toggle caption George Mott/Glimmerglass Opera ACT ONE: The opera is set during the Gold Rush of 1849, and opens at sunset in the Polka Saloon, owned by a woman named Minnie. Nick, the bartender, greets miners who wander in for drinks. Minnie is preparing to lead Bible studies, assisted by two Indians, Billy Jackrabbit and his girlfriend Wowkle. Miners known as Happy, Harry, Handsome and Joe sit down to play a game of cards, with a fellow named Sid as the overseer. But Sid is caught cheating, and the miners threaten to hang him. Sheriff Jack Rance steps in to administer a little frontier justice. He pins a Two of Spades to Sid's chest as a mark of shame, and tells the others to spread the word: If Sid removes the card, he'll be shot on sight.

Ashby, a Wells Fargo agent, shows up asking for Minnie. He also tells Sheriff Rance that he's closing in on a notorious bandit who goes by the name Ramerrez. Rance begins to brag that Minnie will soon be his wife. But Sonora taunts him, saying Minnie really loves him. It's no wonder. Nick has been telling every man who comes to the bar that Minnie is sweet on him — leading each one to buy rounds for the house to celebrate. Rance declares his love for Minnie, who brushes him off. Rance sings of his unhappy childhood and his gambling life, saying he'd give a fortune for just one kiss. Minnie says that's fine, but she's holding out for true love. Nick then brings in a stranger, who calls himself Dick Johnson, and has been asking for whiskey and water. Rance demands to know Johnson's business, but Minnie vouches for him. It seems they've met before, and the two of them dance a waltz together. Ashby and a group of men drag in Jose Castro, a member of the Ramerrez gang.

Castro says he has no loyalty to Ramerrez, and to save his own skin he offers to lead the men to the bandit's camp. Then, speaking privately to Johnson, Castro tells him that the gang is ready to rob the saloon and he's only leading Ashby and the others away as a ruse. Johnson is supposed to return a whistle as a signal that the coast is clear. Castro and the other men leave. Nick says that a bandit has been seen hanging around, which worries Minnie. But Johnson comforts her and agrees to come to her place for dinner. There's a whistle from outside, but Johnson doesn't return the signal. It seems an evening with Minnie is more important to him than another heist. ACT TWO: In Minnie's cabin Billy and Wowkle, her Indian servants, sing a lullaby to their child and talk about getting married. Minnie sends Billy away so she can dress for dinner with Dick Johnson. Johnson shows up for their date and wonders about Minnie's unorthodox life among the rough and tumble miners. Minnie says she wouldn't have it any other way. After dinner, Johnson persuades Minnie to give him her very first kiss.

He knows he shouldn't let things go further but a blizzard prevents him from leaving. Minnie says he can stay over; he can have her bed, and she'll sleep by the fire. Then they hear voices outside. Minnie hides Johnson behind the bed curtains and opens her door to find Rance, accompanied by Nick, Ashby and a miner called Sonora. They say they're worried about her. They've discovered that Dick Johnson is really the notorious bandit Ramerrez, and Nick saw him heading up the trail toward Minnie's cabin. Minnie tells them she's fine, and sends them away. Alone with Johnson again, she confronts him. He admits that he is Ramerrez, but begs for forgiveness and says he'll give up everything to be with her. Minnie says she can forgive him for being a bandit, but not for stealing her first kiss with a pack of lies. Johnson leaves, but as he closes the door behind him there's a gunshot. Minnie goes to investigate and finds Johnson outside, wounded and bleeding. She brings him in, and helps him climb through a trapdoor into the attic just before Rance arrives.

Minnie says Johnson isn't there and dares Rance to search her cabin. Rance is about to give up and go when a drop of blood falls from the ceiling. He orders Johnson to come downstairs. Johnson stumbles down the ladder, and passes out. Minnie challenges Rance to a game of poker. If she loses, she'll marry Rance. If Minnie wins, Rance must let her go off with Johnson. Rance accepts the terms. They play poker, best two hands out of three. It's a scene worthy of a classic, Hollywood Western — a tense showdown with life and death stakes, playing out with ominous music thrumming in the background. During the game, Minnie pretends to faint and switches her cards so she ends up with the winning hand. Rance is furious, but he holds up his end of the deal. He leaves, and Minnie tends to the wounded Johnson. ACT THREE: Some time later, Nick, Ashby and Sherrif Rance gather around a campfire. Ashby says he thinks his men have caught up with Ramerrez — but it turns out to be a false alarm. They talk about how everything has changed since this "Johnson" appeared.

The jealous Rance points to Minnie's cabin and says that before long, she'll see her lover at the end of a rope — and soon it looks like he's right. Johnson is finally captured. He's brought in tethered to his horse, and Billy is ordered to prepare the noose. Johnson says he's ready to die. His only request is that Minnie never be told that he's dead. He wants her to think that he's just fine, gone off to lead a new life somewhere else. Hearing him talk lovingly about Minnie is too much for Rance, who punches Johnson in the face. Johnson is about to hang when we hear Minnie's voice. She rides in on horseback and pleads for mercy for Johnson. When the men ignore her she draws a pistol, threatening to kill both Johnson and herself. The miners are divided over what to do. Then she reminds the men of all she's done for them, how she's helped every one of them in special ways, and they give in. Outnumbered, Rance has no choice but to turn his prisoner loose. Minnie and Johnson are allowed to leave together, unharmed.

The miners bid their darling Minnie a sad farewell and she and Johnson go off, singing, into the distance. The Girl of the Golden West The Girl of the Golden West The Girl of the Golden West The Girl of the Golden West by Giacomo Puccini Friday, November 14 at 8pm Sunday, November 16 at 2pm Not your typical western, Puccini’s LA FANCIULLA DEL WEST tells the story of a woman who owns a saloon, protects a keg of gold, preaches from the Bible, and will do anything to protect her outlaw lover. Listen Opera review: 'The Girl of the Golden West' - SFGate Opera review: 'The Girl of the Golden West' OPERA REVIEW By Joshua Kosman , San Francisco Chronicle Published 4:00 am, Friday, June 11, 2010 Photo: Paul Chinn, The Chronicle Image 1of/2 Close Image 1 of 2 Deborah Voight is armed with a rifle in a scene from the San Francisco Opera's production of Puccini's "The Girl of the Golden West" in San Francisco, Calif., on Friday, June 4, 2010.

Deborah Voight is armed with a rifle in a scene from the San Francisco Opera's production of Puccini's "The Girl of the Golden West" in San Francisco, Calif., on Friday, June 4, 2010. Photo: Paul Chinn, The Chronicle Image 2 of 2 Sheriff Rance, portrayed by Roberto Frontali, organizes a posse to capture outlaws in a scene from the San Francisco Opera's production of Puccini's "The Girl of the Golden West" in San Francisco, Calif., on Friday, June 4, 2010. less Sheriff Rance, portrayed by Roberto Frontali, organizes a posse to capture outlaws in a scene from the San Francisco Opera's production of Puccini's "The Girl of the Golden West" in San Francisco, Calif., on ...

more Photo: Paul Chinn, The Chronicle Opera review: 'The Girl of the Golden West' 1 / 2 Back to Gallery "La Fanciulla del West" ("The Girl of the Golden West"), Puccini's elaborate operatic oater, wants two things to make it work: a conductor in tune with the lush inventiveness of the score, and a soprano who can consistently bring vigor and vocal allure to the demanding title role. The San Francisco Opera 's new production, which opened at the War Memorial Opera House Wednesday night - its first presentation of the work in more than 30 years - has just one of those. Music Director Nicola Luisotti has been an outspoken champion of "Fanciulla" for some time now, and his dedication to the piece was evident throughout an impassioned and forceful performance. The Opera Orchestra sounded splendid - though Luisotti's enthusiasm sometimes led him to drown out the singers - and the harmonic and rhythmic fecundity of Puccini's writing came through at every juncture. But things were more uncertain on the vocal front, with a strenuous and often acidic performance from soprano Deborah Voigt and capable but inconsistent contributions from her colleagues.

The result was an evening of undeniable rewards, but one that didn't quite make a fully convincing case for a work that is apt to be unfamiliar even to practiced opera buffs. The reasons for the piece's comparative neglect are understandable but far from justified. Based (like "Madama Butterfly" before it) on a play by the American writer and impresario David Belasco , "Fanciulla" is set in a mining camp during the California Gold Rush . It tells the tale of Minnie, a goodhearted tavern keeper who tends to the spiritual and emotional needs of the local men while keeping at bay the erotic needs of the sheriff, Jack Rance. Love comes to her at last in the person of a bandit going by the preposterous pseudonym of Dick Johnson , and it triumphs thanks to a combination of built-up good will and the always-useful ability to cheat at poker.

Skeptics may giggle at the spectacle of the Italianate miners, even though the setting and plot are no more absurd on their face than anything in "La Bohème" or "Madama Butterfly." More telling is the fact that "Fanciulla" finds Puccini stretching beyond the musical idiom of his early successes, and doing it in ways that are sometimes brilliant and sometimes not quite persuasive. To listen to "Fanciulla" is to hear foreshadowings of the harmonic daring of "Turandot" - particularly in the frequent use of whole-tone scales derived from Debussy - as well as melodic shapes and formulas carried over from "Tosca" and "Bohème." Luisotti did his best to integrate these strains, with frequent but not universal success. Voigt, singing Minnie for the first time, brought theatrical vibrancy and considerable personal charm to the role - it was no stretch to imagine an entire troop of miners eating out of her hand - but her singing largely lacked the freshness and tonal bloom it once boasted. Through the first two acts, her tone sounded pinched and constrained, with a sense of effort that kept the role's soaring phrases from conveying their full impact.

The performance improved greatly in the third act, in time for her heartfelt plea for Johnson's life to have its effect. Making his company debut as Johnson, tenor Salvatore Licitra also came into his own in that short final act. "Ch'ella mi creda libero e lontano," in which he asks the miners not to tell Minnie of his ignominious demise, emerged with a full flourishing of lyricism that was not always evident elsewhere. Baritone Roberto Frontali was a potent Rance, singing with plenty of dark color and dramatic intensity, and the men of the Opera Chorus made a hearty, well-disciplined ensemble. Kevin Langan (Ashby) and Steven Cole (Nick) were underpowered, but there were excellent smaller contributions from Trevor Schuenemann ( Jake Wallace ), David Lomelí (Harry), Brian Leerhuber (Larkens), and Maya Lahyani (Wowkle). Director Lorenzo Mariani , working on a strangely fragmentary set by Maurizio Balò , didn't do much to make the drama cohere.

An opening tableau of miners rappelling down the mountainside was simply perplexing, and the pointless final appearance of a live horse, at what should be the opera's climactic moment, stopped the proceedings dead in its tracks. San Francisco Opera: "La Fanciulla del West" plays seven more times through July 2 at the War Memorial Opera House. $15-$360. (415) 864-3330. . Latest from the SFGATE homepage: Click below for the top news from around the Bay Area and beyond. Sign up for our newsletters to be the first to learn about breaking news and more. Go to 'Sign In' and 'Manage Profile' at the top of the page. The Girl of the Golden West (La fanciulla del West) | Opera North Comment New production It’s the Gold Rush of 1849 and plucky, gun-toting, saloon owner Minnie plays surrogate mother to the rough crew of miners who frequent her bar, whilst batting back the affections of the local Sheriff. But when a mysterious stranger comes into her life, everything looks set to change...

A tale of true love and second chances set in a world of gun fights, poker games and stagecoach robberies, La fanciulla del West combines the suspense and action of a great Western with the emotional punch of Italian opera. Deemed by Puccini as one of his greatest works, Fanciulla was originally written for three of the most esteemed opera singers of all time including Emmy Destinn and Enrico Caruso. With Alwyn Mellor, whose breathtaking performance as Sieglinde in our Walküre enthused audiences and critics, Robert Hayward and Rafael Rojas taking on the lead roles, this blazing new production of the original Spaghetti Western is sure to strike gold. Lasts approximately 2 hours 30 mins Sung in Italian with English titles This production is supported by the Friends of Opera North S.F. Opera to Premiere John Adams’ Girls of the Golden West | San Francisco Classical Voice San Francisco Classical Voice Comments Simultaneous announcements today in San Francisco, Dallas, Amsterdam, and Venice reported that those cities’ major opera companies are cocommissioning and presenting a new opera by John Adams, called Girls of the Golden West.

Set during the California Gold Rush, as was Puccini’s 1910 La fanciulla del West (Girl [singular] of the Golden West), Adams’ opera, with libretto and direction by his long-time collaborator, Peter Sellars, is based on historic events and real persons. “[They] typify the mix of wildness, optimism, greed, violence, humor, and racial prejudice of the era, all played out against the rugged beauty of California’s mountain surroundings,” says the announcement by SFO General Director David Gockley. Gockley, retiring at the end of the current summer season next month, says when Adams and Sellars — his collaborators for decades — approached him with the idea, “I was very delighted with the opportunity to present the world premiere here in the city created in large part by the 1849 Gold Rush.” Gockley has had a major role, in Houston before and now in San Francisco, presenting such Adams-Sellars collaborations as Nixon in China, The Death of Klinghoffer, and Doctor Atomic. Girls is Gockley’s 45th commission and world premiere in as many years of opera management.

Besides the new opera’s local significance, Gockley says, “the story also has universal appeal with its bold, unconventional and wildly diverse characters who typify the adventurousness of the American spirit.” The opera will be premiered in the War Memorial Opera House in November 2017, the production also presented by the Dallas Opera, Amsterdam’s Dutch National Opera (De Nationale Opera), and Teatro La Fenice, Venice. The two-act opera, sung in English, is scored for eight characters, men’s chorus, and orchestra, including musicians on guitar, accordion, and piano. The principal character is Louise Amelia Knapp Smith Clappe, a doctor’s wife who wrote letters under the pen name “Dame Shirley” during her stay in the mining camp of Rich Bar, in 1851–1852. She witnessed and wrote about the frantic gold mining, claim disputes, the destruction of natural surroundings, whippings, murders, lynchings, encounters with the local Native Americans, and diverse nationalities thrown together in the shared desire for quick wealth.

Berkeley resident Adams, 69, who has lived in California for the past 45 years, says: The Gold Rush was California’s first “bubble.” Those who came here were willing to give up everything and endure the worst in hopes of a quick fortune. A drama played out against the backdrop of California’s natural beauty, the Gold Rush brought out the very best and the very worst of human traits, from scenes of ugly nativist racism and casual violence to examples of nobility, generosity and ingenuity — and of course there was always that great humor, gritty and self-deprecating. To be able to set to music the authentic voices of these people, whether from their letters or their songs or from newspaper accounts from their time, is a great privilege for me. These events took place literally in my own backyard. Not many composers can hope to be as lucky as I to have this connection to the historical reality. Janos Gereben appreciates news tips, corrections, and words of encouragement at [email protected] .

Puccini’s ‘Fanciulla del West’ at the Metropolitan Opera - The New York Times The New York Times Music |When Puccini Rode Tall In the Saddle Search When Puccini Rode Tall In the Saddle By CORI ELLISON Continue reading the main story Photo A scene from Puccini’s “Fanciulla del West” (“The Girl of the Golden West”) at the Metropolitan Opera. Credit Hiroko Masuike for The New York Times MUSICAL centenaries are double-edged occasions. They can inspire illuminating perspectives on worthy topics, or they can be little more than knee-jerk pretexts for music publishers, presenters and record labels to fetishize round numbers in the name of sales, with musicologists gratefully riding their coattails.

A centenary on Friday — that of the world premiere of Puccini’s “Fanciulla del West” at the Metropolitan Opera , to be commemorated there with the second performance of a revival of Giancarlo del Monaco’s 1992 production starring Deborah Voigt and Marcello Giordani — is a milestone well worth contemplating, as it recalls not just the birth of a great opera but a sort of coming of age of opera in America. In 1903 the 20-year-old Metropolitan Opera began, for the first time, to set its sights on contemporary works. Masterminding that initiative was Otto H. Kahn, a German-born financier, arts patron and advocate of American composers, who joined the Met’s board determined to reshape the company’s heavily German profile. To that end he imported two Italians, Giulio Gatti-Casazza, general manager of the Teatro Alla Scala in Milan, and Arturo Toscanini, its principal conductor.

“My hope, when I came to America,” Gatti-Casazza wrote in his memoir, “was to be able to discover some good American operas, which I could produce and maintain in the repertory.” Gatti-Casazza put his money where his mouth was. In 27 years as general manager of the Met, he presented 14 American operas (a record surpassed only by Julius Rudel, who produced 35 American operas in 22 years as general director of the New York City Opera ). Most of Gatti-Casazza’s American operas conformed to a conservative post-Wagnerian style and duly became footnotes in music history, rarely performed and leading nowhere much (though one of them, Louis Gruenberg’s imaginative “Emperor Jones,” deserves revival). Gatti-Casazza’s American opera enterprise also included works written in English and works on American subjects. Luckily the world’s greatest living opera composer at the time, Giacomo Puccini , harbored a keen interest in Americana. Advertisement Continue reading the main story Puccini’s fascination with the American West dated to 1890, when he saw William F.

Cody’s touring show in Milan and wrote to his brother, “Buffalo Bill is a group of North Americans with a quantity of Indian redskins and buffaloes that perform splendid shooting tricks and truly represent scenes from the frontier.” In 1907, during his first trip to New York, Puccini saw “The Girl of the Golden West,” a play by David Belasco, the American playwright, director, producer and designer; Puccini had based an opera on Belasco’s earlier drama “Madame Butterfly.” Puccini’s paralyzing three-year search for a suitable operatic subject was over. Madama Butterfly” had already tapped the natural synergy between Puccini and Belasco, both crowd-pleasing populists who focused more on a sturdy dramatic arc, filled out with realistic detail, than on literary distinction. The setting of “The Girl of the Golden West” fueled Puccini’s ever-deepening absorption with ambience. For him an opera’s setting was not merely background but the defining element of its musical and dramatic nature. Photo A photograph from the premiere production of the opera in 1910 at the Met. Credit Metropolitan Opera Archives Belasco came by his Western location honestly.

His parents, British Jews of Portuguese extraction, were among the original forty-niners who flooded northern California after gold was discovered at Sutter’s Mill in 1848. On a visit to a Nevada mining camp the young Belasco heard the unforgettable singing of the minstrel Jake Wallace, on whose lips Puccini would place the plangent ballad that sets and sustains the pervasive air of nostalgia in “La Fanciulla del West.” And Belasco’s father was part of a posse that captured a wounded outlaw whose hiding place in a loft was betrayed by blood dripping into the room below. This slice of life would become one of the most gripping scenes in Puccini’s pioneering spaghetti western. Belasco’s backyard was as exotic to Puccini as Cio-Cio-San’s Nagasaki or Turandot’s Beijing. In his search for “authentic” musical material, he drew from the kinds of music used in Belasco’s play: polkas, waltzes, ragtime and Latin-American tunes. These he applied with more zeal than precision, just as an American composer might indiscriminately swap a Sicilian tarantella for a Romagnan saltarello.

Puccini also mined American Indian musical material from several early ethnographic collections. These melodies granted him free access to whole-tone scales, with which he had been flirting since his early “Manon Lescaut.” In “Fanciulla” he used their roomy intervals not simply as markers for exoticism but also as aural metaphors for the wide-open spaces of the West. The ink had barely dried on “Fanciulla” when, in the summer of 1910, Gatti-Casazza called on Puccini to convince him that his new opera should become the Met’s first world premiere. Gatti-Casazza stacked the deck by offering the tenor Enrico Caruso as the male lead and Belasco himself to supervise the production, along with all the creature comforts Puccini could want. The signing of the contract between Puccini and the Met — flashily staged, with a golden pen, in Paris on June 9, 1910 — was just the first volley in a barrage of advance publicity unmatched in Met history until the current regime of the resourceful Peter Gelb. The Met spared no expense in promoting the “Fanciulla” premiere as an essential social event.

The press dogged the heels of Puccini, Belasco and Toscanini. Tickets for the premiere, at twice the normal Met prices, disappeared swiftly and were scalped for as much as 30 times their box office price. Please verify you're not a robot by clicking the box. Invalid email address. Please re-enter. You must select a newsletter to subscribe to. Sign Up Privacy Policy Gatti-Casazza’s only misstep was to peddle “Fanciulla” as “Puccini’s American opera.” The composer responded, “The music cannot be called American, for music has no nationality — it is either music or nothing.” Contradicting himself later, Puccini said: “For this drama I have composed music that, I feel sure, reflects the spirit of the American people and particularly the strong, vigorous nature of the West. I have never been West, but I have read so much about it that I know it thoroughly.” As Dec. 10, 1910, the day of the “Fanciulla” premiere, approached, New York whipped itself into a frenzy nowadays reserved for Yankees World Series wins or Justin Bieber shows.

And “Fanciulla” did not disappoint, to judge from the 55 curtain calls and effusive press coverage. Advertisement Continue reading the main story But once the glow of the premiere had dimmed, it was open season on Puccini. Deaf to the innovations of his newest opera, critics became obsessed with the “inauthenticity” of everything from the singers’ gestures and makeup to the alleged misuse of American verbal locutions and musical idioms. Photo Deborah Voigt and Marcello Giordani at the Met during a rehearsal of the opera , which celebrates its centenary this year. Credit Hiroko Masuike for The New York Times Nicola Luisotti, who will conduct the Met revival, speculated on the work’s initial failure and subsequent lack of popularity. “There is no death, no blood, as there are in typical Puccini operas,“ he said. “The ending is quiet, not bombastic but not happy either. And the three leading roles are very difficult to cast.” Perhaps even harder to swallow was — and is — the opera’s musical audacity .

In “Fanciulla,” Puccini, alert to contemporary musical trends, followed his ever surer instincts toward a naturalistic music drama that absorbs short melodic units into a nearly seamless orchestral texture: anathema to those who like their Puccini served in easily digestible chunks. Like Verdi’s masterly “Falstaff,” which shares its continuous texture, “Fanciulla” is not easy to grasp on first hearing. As for the work’s current standing, Deborah Burton, an assistant professor of music at Boston University and an organizer of a centennial symposium there on Monday as well as a splendid Web site on all things “Fanciulla” ( fanciulla100.org ), said: “It goes against a century’s worth of cinematic myths about the Old West. Instead of a strong, silent cowboy rescuing a helpless heroine, we have an emotionally vulnerable bandit rescued by a gun-toting, poker-playing, independent woman. But that’s actually much truer to history.” “Fanciulla” may have imploded after its premiere, but its aftershocks have profoundly affected opera in America, for better or worse.

Not only did it place the United States firmly on the world’s cultural map, it effectively ended German hegemony over America’s operatic life. The seminal opera companies of Dallas, San Francisco, Chicago and New Orleans, born in its wake, are all Italian in provenance and aesthetics, and all thriving. Less obvious but perhaps more important is the influence of “Fanciulla” on American opera. After it Americans wrote more often about America. Charles Wakefield Cadman’s “Shanewis,” done by the Met in 1918, became the first major American opera with a contemporary American setting, and the first with a libretto by an American woman, Nelle Richmond Eberhart. Minnie, the fearless title character of “Fanciulla” and one of the few Puccini heroines left breathing at the final curtain, spawned a line of similarly strong, feisty, unorthodox American heroines.

The leading women in Carlisle Floyd’s “Susannah,” Douglas Moore’s “Ballad of Baby Doe,” Jack Beeson’s “Lizzie Borden,” Marc Blitzstein’s “Regina,” Richard Danielpour’s “Margaret Garner,” Jake Heggie’s “Dead Man Walking” and Mark Adamo’s “Little Women” may all be counted among Minnie’s heirs. On the musical side Puccini’s full-throated, melodramatic and unabashedly tonal verismo style swiftly became and remained the lingua franca of American opera. Statistics compiled by the service organization Opera America clearly reveal that despite the plurality of musical and dramatic styles in opera today, “American verismo” continues its overwhelming dominance in the country’s mainstream opera houses. Hand in hand with that trend, the American operagoing public and critical establishment still nurse a deeply entrenched preference for a Belasco-inspired hyper-realistic theatrical style. For the blessings and challenges it has brought us, let’s have, in the immortal phrase from “Fanciulla,” a “whiskey per tutti” in honor of Puccini’s American opera and the progressive spirit it represents.

A version of this article appears in print on December 5, 2010, on Page AR23 of the New York edition with the headline: When Puccini Rode Tall In the Saddle. Order Reprints | Today's Paper | Subscribe The Girl of the Golden West The Girl of the Golden West The Girl of the Golden West The Girl of the Golden West After the success of his opera Madame Butterfly , Puccini returned to the source of its inspiration, David Belasco. Belasco, playwright for Madame Butterfly had also written The Girl of the Golden West, and Puccini selected that drama for his next opera. This opera was the first World premiere premiere for the Metropolitan Opera House in New York. It went on to be a huge success all over the United States. The Opera is set in California during the 1849 Gold Rush. Minnie the camp girl has fallen in love with Dick Johnson, who is really Ramerrez, a notorious bandit who is being hunted by Sheriff Jack Rance. In the scene, Dick Johnson has entered the bar and having ordered a drink, is joined by Minnie. Sheriff Jack Rance is at the bar becoming increasingly jealous.

This picture is a label spotters dream with vineyards featured from Heitz Cellar The Hess Collection, Trefethen, Heitz Cellar, Opus One, Jaeger Vineyards, Robert Mondavi Domaine Chandon and Rutherford Vintners Original picture

Question: Who wrote the opera 'The Girl of the Golden West'?
Answer: Giacomo Puccini